How does your morning start every day? Mine begins deeply snuggled in my comfy bed, trying to ignore the oh-too-friendly sun obnoxiously peeping in through my window. This usually lasts long enough for me to almost fall back to sleep, right in time for me to hear the familiar bounding footsteps of my 5 year old, running across the hall.

I am of the firm opinion that you can tell a child’s age without even seeing them. Just listen to them walk, or in the case of my child – zoom, through house. Gone are the days of little pitter patter footfalls, now it’s non-stop, no speed control, sound of herding elephants, pretty much all the time.

This house rattling noise is the only warning I have, before his little body comes hurtling through the air to land ungracefully on top of me. The first thing out of his mouth is ALWAYS, “Mama, I’m staaarving. will you make me some brefast?” When asked to pick his poison, he ALWAYS asks for oatmeal.

I’m pretty sure if left on his own, he would eat oatmeal for every meal. Sometimes I try to change it up a bit, keep it interesting with eggs, pancakes or waffles, but he always comes back to his favorite. Lately, I've switched his regular oatmeal to steel-cut oatmeal. Since it can take quite a while to cook, I like to use the overnight method. This method is so simple, you just throw it together the night before and when you wake up you've have smooth, creamy steel cut oatmeal all ready to go. If you want a breakfast on the go, you can even divide up the oatmeal between half pint sized mason jars, and keep them in fridge for a week’s worth of ready made healthy breakfast! When you’re ready to eat once, just take it out of the fridge, pop it in the microwave for 2-3 minutes, then stir in your milk, sugar and whatever other goodies you want to mix in. Unlike regular oatmeal, steel cut oatmeal actually gets better after being in the fridge. So don’t worry about eating a soggy mess.

For a special occasion, it’s really easy to turn these oatmeal cups into oatmeal crumble cups. Like I did here. Crumble makes everything better. Doesn't it?

Berry Crumble Overnight Oatmeal

Yield: 6 cups printable recipe

Oatmeal:

1 2/3 cups steel cut oats

4 cups water

pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups mixed berries

3/4 cup milk

6 tbsp sugar (if desired)

Crumble:

3/4 cups all-purpose flour

4 tbsp butter, chilled

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp granulated sugar

Directions for Regular Oatmeal Cups:

1. Collect your jars. I used half-pint jars but you can use pint-sized jars for a larger serving.2. In a large pot, bring the oats, water and salt to a boil. Simmer for about 3 minutes then turn off the heat.3. Ladle the oats and water into the jars. I use a funnel because I have the worlds shakiest hands. Cover the jars tightly with their caps and rings. Leave on the counter overnight. 4. The next morning, put all but one of the jars in the refrigerator. Take the cap off one jar and stir up the oatmeal inside. Microwave for 2 to 3 minutes, or until nice and warm. Add your milk, sugar, and any other goodies you want to mix in. I love using fresh fruit and nuts, but the possibilities are endless. Serve and enjoy!Directions for Berry Crumble Oatmeal Cups:

1. Follow steps 1-3 above.

2. The next morning, cut the chilled butter into the flour until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the sugars, and then sprinkle a little cold water and stir until you get coarse lumps. Place the crumble in the freezer for about 10 minutes.

3. Take an oatmeal cup, stir the oatmeal a little and add a little milk (as desired) and some berries (as desired) and a little sugar to sweeten (as desired). Sprinkle a few spoonful's of the crumble over the top. Repeat as necessary. Place the oatmeal cups on a cookie sheet, and bake in a 400F oven for about 10-15 minutes, or until the crumble is pale golden and mixture is hot.

Recipe Notes:
You can also add your berries or other mix-ins to the rest of the jars before putting them away in the refrigerator. Then whenever you’re heading out the door just grab one.

Lately I've been really into different methods of preparing oatmeal. I've been psyched about oven-baked oatmeal and now these overnight oats are calling to me - I've never tried them, so this is something I am excited to experiment with. Thanks!

What an awesome idea. Thank you so much for providing the step-by-step because I will probably actually do this as a result. Dudette likes her oatmeal too and yes, her heel-first running sounds like an entire herd of elephants in the house. 5 year-olds have that down.

This is the greatest idea ever! I made overnight oats in the crock pot, but it kinda freaked me out to have the crock pot going all night while I was sleeping. I love this idea and will try it tonight!

I just commented on your strawberry apple crisp, but couldn't resist this one! I LOVEEE oatmeal but I'm always too lazy in the morning and it takes a while to prepare. I love this idea! What recipe do you use to prepare normal oatmeal if you were going to make it the morning of? (for the weekend when we have more time! haha)

Hi Scotty, you would make the oatmeal with the same proportions and just divide it between your larger mason jars. You won't fill as many jars this way, but you can still use the same amounts. You can also double the recipe to fill the larger mason jars.

Great going to give this a try then tonight. Sometimes being a "new" cook throws you off and just asking questions to make sure you don't mess up means alot..especially since your not wasting any food by experimenting.

Well I think I messed up I used these oats-http://www.cardullos.com/products/view/mccanns-mccanns-steel-cut-irish-oatmeal These are mccans steel cut oats but says quick cooking and ready in 5 minutes. So I followed directions as posted but didn't really have water leftover it looked like ready to eat oatmeal instead but I put them in my jars and I'm leaving them overnight. Now I did have a laddle full left and I poured that into a bowl and figured well can't go any MORE wrong so let me add some of this CoffeeMate "Natural Bliss Creamer" to it and eat it now..and you know it tasted fine. So my question would be what kind of oats again should I use and do you think that what I made would still be tasty? Again all this is from a "newbie" cook! Thanks again for all your help!

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